past F&G council meeting notes

[mazzgolf]

I'm going through past F&G Council minutes. Everyone should do this periodically - you can get some good info.

https://www.nj.gov/dep/fgw/cnclminutes.htm

Here's something that perked my ears from October's meeting - am I reading this right? There is talk about forcing us to go non-toxic for turkey hunting? You know, force us to buy those shells that are like double the price than the lead ammo we can use now?

Quote

The president of the National Wild Turkey Federation contacted Chairman Virgilio about non‐toxic shot especially as it relates to turkey. He thinks it looks good and it’s faster, and the quicker we can move to non‐toxic the better we are.

 

 

From the September minutes - they are talking about restricting waterfowl hunting at Tuckahoe WMA to Mon., Wed., Sat. only and have it "hunt by registration only" - in some cases, you have to go there 2-hours before shooting time and draw from the lottery... and cross-your-fingers you did not get up at 3am for no reason (at least, this is how I read it - you don't get drawn in the lottery, you are going home):

 

Quote

What we propose to do is improve the quality of the waterfowl hunting at the Tuckahoe Wildlife Management Area. To reduce the duck hunting pressure, we would limit hunting to Mondays, Wednesdays, and Saturdays. We would allow hunting all day and only apply this during the duck hunting season.  We’re looking at providing two different options for hunting experiences and hunter densities, one for the Tuckahoe side which would be a very structured program and one for the Corbin City side which would be a much less structured program. On the Tuckahoe side, we propose to put out somewhere in the order of 5‐10 hunting blinds at least 250 yards apart. These blinds would accommodate up to four hunters and would be able to set up one or two blinds for disabled hunters. Hunters would draw the blinds by lottery, half would be pre‐registration in September and half would be drawn on site two hours before shooting time, then open the impoundment gates after the lottery and have the hunters complete a survey so we have the data on their hunting success. On the Corbin City side, we would have no blinds on site and keep the gates closed.  There will be no restrictions on the number of hunters that go in. There will be no restriction on hunting party size. We would provide a survey and following with the results we would determine to either proceed with the program or not.  Chairman Virgilio mentioned that this program was presented to the Game Code Committee about six months ago.  They felt it was important enough to present it to the Council. It is highly recommended by Ducks Unlimited and about 80% of the United States participates in the program like this. He thinks NJ has lagged behind. He thought this was important enough that he called the Director and they spent a day looking at where the gates would be, who would be barred off and what would happen. It looks like minor inconveniences and it’s a three‐year test program so we get to evaluate it throughout the three years and seems like something that might be worthwhile as we move into a new area of regulated controlled hunts.

  
 

[Bonefreak]

That's why they meet on Tuesdays at 10 AM and try and slip these things by when everyone is working 

[chenrossi]

The stuff about Tuckahoe as far as the logistics of how it will be ran is not set in stone yet so take it with a grain of salt. It's not an outright tuck your tail and go home, that is why the corbin city side is being left as is. Closeby area to go to as a fall back for those who don't get in via the lottery. Plus offers it to be a good study comparing the two areas in terms of use with having one controlled to manage the hunting pressure. It should be way better not getting pounded to snot day in and day out by people...